Duval Dirtbag

Murder On The Base

Chapter 37 - Pin the Tail on the Billy (Holy Shit!)

There was a collective Holy Shit! from the assembly. Bill’s own knife was poking straight through his forearm. Finley had struck from below so the blade pointed up in a way that if Bill were to look at a watch on that arm, he could have stabbed himself further by accident. He turned his arm so that he could see the pommel, shown briefly before a rivulet of blood could cover it shown the Star of the Philippines.

Finley wiggled away from Ssgt. Remington and skittered over to Fala. Her mouth was agape. There was a short but rich storm of emotions that plagued her face. She settled on deciding she should offer help. “Bill, don’t take that thing out. We’ve got to get you to a hospital!”

“Yeah,” Bill noted with steely calm, “I figured that much.”

“Hang on, I’ve got something.” Fala reached into her bag.

Linnet and Bel’a were in each other's arms in shock. They both looked at Finley who defaulted to standing nearer to Ssgt Remington while Harley still stood off to the side. Finley was crouched in a defensive position but had a stillness that Michael had never seen him have before. Finley looked relaxed. He noticed Bill’s blood on his tan hand and drew it unconsciously to his mouth. He licked the blood and shivered in a new way to Michael. A shiver of pleasure? Michael cringed.

Bill’s mom, Sharon, made moves to a hallway bathroom, “I’ll get you some gauze and some iodine!” but Fala stopped her before she got that far. Bill gave a breathy grunt hearing his mother mention iodine.

“No need, Sharon, I keep a first aid kit in my bag.” Fala reassured Sharon, straightening the older woman to a more stable stance after almost knocking her over. Still Sharon ran to fetch the iodine.

Bill grumbled under his breath. He held his hand under his forearm to keep more blood from spilling on the carpet. He had the presence of mind to step backward to the bar sink. Old White Bill swept around the bar and started to turn on the hot water. He grabbed a towel that was mostly white with koi fish who swam at the milky ends. “No! For God's sake, don’t use that towel!” Bill shrieked with more horror than when he’d been stabbed, “That looks like one of Mom’s towels. I bet she donated some to the Community Center. There’s got to be something else we can use!”

Michael had been standing aside, trying to stay out of the way, but grabbed a red napkin from a nearby table, emptied the clean utensils and tossed it to the elder Bill. Old White Bill caught it and swiped it under the steaming water. Bill glared at him, almost daring him to touch him with it before he grabbed it out of the elder Bill’s hand. He started to dab at the base of the wound.

Fala came forward and mostly approved of the work being done. Bill looked at Fala with a half glare, half pleading look, “Don’t use the iodine.”

“Goddess, what is this, the Dark Ages? No, of course not.” Fala procured an aerosol bottle and sprayed it on the underside of Bill’s arm. It foamed up even as she turned Bill’s arm to spray the top of his wound. The foam kept the knife and the blood in place.

When she was satisfied that it had cured, she stepped back. Bill gave his arm a little wiggle, “That sucker ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“But you still need to get to a medical professional. You can’t just keep a knife in your forearm for the rest of your life.”

“I don’t know, it’s kind of badass.” Bill smirked though the wiggling had made the pain in his arm known. “I’m kind of like a reverse Batman, you know?” He took a swipe at the air with his Batman arm and immediately regretted it.

Michael weakly smirked back at Bill. “Where do we go? I don’t know Daytona.”

“We’ll figure it out. I’ve got the keys.” Bill glared at Finley, who simply glared back, no shivering Michael noted. “I’mma let you drive though.”

“Um, ok.” Michael agreed hesitantly.

“Oh Willy, I’ve got the iodine!” Sharon called bopping back into the cafegymatorium where the assembly had been watching the race.

“No thanks, Mom, we’ve got it taken care of. We’re going to have to go a little earlier than planned.” Bill gave her a side hug with his unarmed arm.

“Everyone?” Sharon’s eyes widened eagerly.

“I’m not sure about everyone.” Michael squinted at Finley then softened his eyes at Sharon, “And I don’t know how long this will take, but we’ve got to get this taken care of, Mrs. Zornosa.”

Bill’s lips popped when he said, “Welp, time to go.” He pointed to the front exit. “Anyone who’s coming needs to come on.”

The Pack looked to Fala. She slowly recoiled away from Bill. She looked at Old Man Bill and said, “I think I want to hear what Bill has to say.”

The old man whistled shrilly and gave Bill finger pistols, “See you later, Slick.”

Michael looked at Linnet. Linnet met his eyes, then turned to Fala as if to say that she was going to stay with Fala. She was, after all, her queen. Michael’s expression slacked then hardened into a flat determination. “Let’s go.” Bill and Michael strode from the Filipino Community Center to the big Shil’vati vehicle like the Reservoir Dogs leaving the restaurant.

***

“MIKEY GET ME TO THE HOSPITAL! HOLY SHIT THIS HURTS!” Bill wailed.

“Right! Right! Of course!” Michael squealed, “Which way do I go?”

“Turn right here! Then left, get on that main road and keep going!”

“Shit man, I know it hurts, but like, what does it feel like?”

“Ya know, once the shock that that chihuahua looking motherfucker stabbed me subsided, it really fucking burned.”

“Did that spray help?” Michael proffered.

“It helps where Fala sprayed, but there’s a lot of blade in here.” Bill flexed his fingers, “I can still feel my fingers, so I’ve got that goin’ for me.”

Michael drove forward, barely noticed the change in the road, but he saw the dashboard get brighter; “Oh dude, look, we must be back on the Shil’vati grid because we’re charging again.”

“Good thing, this might take a while.” Bill pointed in the direction of what looked like a hospital. There was a steady stream of ambulances queued up under the Emergency Department signage and doors. “Oh shit man, the people from the race…”

Michael slapped the steering wheel, “Shit! What do we do now?”

Bill started to pound the dashboard with his right fist and pulled it in time to not jar the knife in his arm. He looked at the knife again. “Dude, this is the knife that was used for the murder on the base. We gotta get this thing back home.”

“Can you tolerate it that long?”

“I’m going to wait in this line at the ER as long as it will take me to get back to the base at Jax.” He held his arm up to show Michael, “And who’s going to suspect me of murder using my own knife that’s through my own arm?”

“Pretty compelling argument in my book.”

Bill spoke gravelly, “To the Batcave!”

***

Once they were through the gate, Michael drove straight for their office. They tore through the door and interrupted Joph’rena’s current interview. “JOPH’RENA, WE NEED YOUR HELP!”

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Joph’rena dismissed her interviewee and led Bill in the office to his desk and stretched his arm across his own desk. “This is the knife that killed the soldier a few nights ago.”

“It is.” Michael confirmed.

“It’s mine.” Bill stated.

Joph’rena twisted her tusk, “So it is.” She squinted at Bill. “Why is it in your arm?”

Bill balked, “I didn’t put it in there, bitch!”

“No, bitch, it’s supposed to be in our evidence locker.” Joph’rena pointed out the door.

Bill growled. “Take it up with Finley! He’s the one who stabbed me with it!”

Joph’rena’s eyes widened like saucers, “Finley?” She pulled out her omnipad and started swiping through files.

Michael looked between Joph’rena’s hot pursuit and Bill flexing his hand. “Could we get Bill seen by someone while you do your thing here?”

“Oh,” Joph’rena took a cursory glance at the knife still in Bill’s arm, “Sure.” She led the way out the door and yelled, “Medic!” She turned back to Michael and Bill and said, “I already called for the medic on my omnipad, but I wanted you two to think I did it with urgency since pressing a button didn’t seem to garner your respect.” She looked up at Michael and asked snidely, “Where’s the rest of the ‘Pack’?”

Michael rolled his eyes at Joph’rena. “Finley stabbed Bill and we kinda ran.”

“And left them in Daytona?” Joph’rena asked menacingly. “After that terrorist attack?”

“How do you know it was a terrorist attack?” Michael asked.

“Parts of the track don’t randomly blow up exposing the patrons of the race to flying cars on purpose, Michael.”

A medic was already rolling up to meet them when they picked up their pace a little bit after the yelling. They grabbed Bill under his hand and elbow and led him to the back of their odd purple metal golf cart cube. Bill inquired, “Can I get a cool cyborg arm like Luke Skywalker?”

“For this?” the medic asked.

Bill nodded his head. “And could we put a cool like, vibrator function in it?” One of the two medics who helped him onto a seat that spun out of the back of the metal cart looked skeptically at the other. “You know, like a deep tissue gun for my sore muscles?”

The other medic pulled out an aerosol can from a compartment in the side of the cart. “I don’t know that this is that serious.”

Michael pointed out, “Fala already sprayed that stuff on him back in Daytona.”

Joph’rena looked up from her frantic swiping, “You two were in Daytona?”

“Yeah, that’s where my mom lives. We took a little–” Bill winced as the spray covered his arm. “Hey! That burns!”

The medic responded, “It’s removing the aforementioned spray.” They kept spraying. “That was to seal the wound. This is to remove that poultice so that we can properly get the knife out.”

“Hmm,” Bill grimaced. “So how bad is it, doc?”

The medic wiped down the mix of chemicals off of both sides of the knife before answering with a brief, “Well…” She then pulled out a syringe gun from another compartment in the cart. She prodded Bill a few times on both sides of his arm, injecting some unknown substance. “Sorry if this stings, but you’ll appreciate it on the other side of this injury.” She then nodded at the other medic who placed her hands firmly on Bill’s hand and elbow. “On three?” she asked as she held Bill’s wrist and grabbed the hilt of the knife.

“Oh shit.” Bill whispered. He glanced over at Michael and Joph’rena. Michael tensed up. Joph’rena tapped on her omnipad absently.

“One.” Bill tensed. The medic continued, “Two.” Then without any more preamble, she pulled the knife out of Bill’s arm. Michael turned away.

“Waaah!” Bill gasped, “What happened to three?”

Michael whined, “What happened to threeeee!”

The medics looked at Joph’rena. They merely shrugged at one another. “That’ll do?” Joph’rena asked them directly.

“It’ll burn, but it’ll do.” the medic replied and handed the knife to Joph’rena. She then turned to Bill. “It’s going to burn for a while, but that’s just the nanites stitching you back together internally.”

“Nanites!?” Bill shrieked.

“Oh, don’t be silly,” Joph’rena scoffed, “I’m sure it’s calibrated for Humans and not Shil’vati.” She turned to the medics, “Right?” She tweaked her tusk cheekily. Michael squinted at Joph’rena and the two Shil’vati medics who towered over him and more so over Bill. They laughed together a little too much. “I’m sure it’s fine.” She chided. She then waved off the medics so she could return to business that seemed more pressing to her. “Come on back inside.”

Bill repeated, “Nanites?”

As Joph’rena led the other two back into their office, she tried to ease the burn of her teasing, “It’s fine. Think of them as little medical residents who will go in and fix whatever’s the matter with you. In this case, your arm.”

Michael scrunched his face at that, pondering what “fixing whatever’s the matter” could really mean.

Bill watched his arm seemingly seal itself, he whispered “Mother. Fucking. Nanites.”

Joph’rena moved on, “Finley had your knife, you say?” She pressed into a hidden panel that had gone unnoticed by Michael in the seemingly solid wall behind his and Bill’s desks and slid it aside. She pressed a button that dropped a wedge containing a lens that pointed to the opposite wall. After a moment, a light projected from the lens she then made a grabbing gesture over her omnipad and flicked her hand toward the light projecting on the opposite wall as though she were throwing seeds like an ancient farmer. It became obvious that she was sharing the information from her omnipad through the projector onto their office wall and controlling it from her omnipad.

“Yeah,” Bill replied, still pressing on his injured forearm. “He must’ve swiped it when the Pack helped us move onto base. Or when I was unpacking. Or packing? Hell, I don't know at this point.”

“So that’s how he got it to use it to kill the patrolwoman.” Joph’rena flipped through pictures of the murder scene.

Michael didn’t care for images of an actual dead body. He mentally held his hands up, but kept them down physically, let’s hope I don’t have nightmares about this, he thought.

Joph’rena held up Bill’s KBAR to compare the blade in her hands with the one projected in monster size on the opposite wall. “Same knife.” She looked over at Bill. “Your knife?”

“Mine.” Bill finally let go of his arm. “It was a gift from my mother.”

“How sweet.” Joph’rena clucked.

Michael thought back to his time these past few days. “Your mom kind of is the glue of the Filipino community in Daytona. She give you that as a protection charm or something?”

Bill shrugged, “You say ‘charm’ as if it’s some kind of Ugga Bugga.” He fidgeted with his arm a little more, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of a reminder of where we came from. But I was born here. So that part of me, I’ve kind of let go.”

“What we expect you all to do as you become a part of the Imperium.” Joph’rena said plaintively.

“Mmm,” Michael intoned.

Joph’rena swiped to a picture of Finley. “Finley does inventory at the evidence locker, so he would have access to the knife and likely would be able to keep anyone from knowing it wasn’t there.”

“Except that it was in my fucking arm.”

“Except that it was in your fucking arm. Good thinking to keep it there. We’ve got plenty of film, I’m sure, of how you kept it holstered: through the gate, onto base, in this office.”

Holstered. Michael thought in horror. Jesus.

“Did you think it was me who killed the patrolwoman?”

“We couldn’t rule you out.” Joph’rena admitted. “It was your knife. The possibility was there.”

“But you let me go.” Bill pondered out loud.

Joph’rena echoed, “We let you go.”

Michael’s mind raced. “It could have been Bill, but you think you’ve got a bigger fish on the line…”

Joph’rena just smiled.

Michael continued to think aloud, “You think someone in the Pack is the rebel.”

Bill and Michael looked at Bill’s arm, then each other then at Joph’rena and all three said together, “Finley.”

“Well fuck, what do we do?” Michael asked exasperatedly.

Bill exclaimed, “Let’s go get them!”

“Yes.” Joph’rena practically purred.

“Look,” Michael interjected, “Finley’s the ‘bad guy’ here. He killed the patrolwoman. He stole the knife. Twice! And he stabbed Bill.”

“It’s likely that he’s committed a dozen other crimes. We’ll have to comb through the inventory to see what else is missing.” Joph’rena added.

Michael couldn’t help himself but to say, “You know how we left the Pack at Daytona?”

“Yes, we were interrupted by Bill’s boo boo. What were you saying?” Joph’rena urged Michael to continue.

While twiddling his two pointer fingers, Michael did continue. “So it turns out that Bill’s mom’s boyfriend Bill is kind of connected with Rachel.”

“So Bill’s mom is sleeping with a Human rebel who is helping the rebel that you slept with and they’ve committed a terrorist act and they have a rebel from a faction already rebelling against the Imperium?” Joph’rena summarized.

“Yes?” Michael said in a high pitch.

Joph’rena waved her hand, closing the projection and pressed the buttons on the wall to turn off the projector. “Ok, explain it to me again on our way to Daytona.”

“We’re going right now?” Michael gasped, “We just got back here.”

Joph’rena smirked at him and led the way out of the office. “This time, we’re going in style.” She started walking toward a bay of big purple Shil’vati space bricks.